“After learning new software and programming languages, Stanford students in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have an opportunity to choose a creative task and design a robot to perform the task for demonstration. The tasks call for a wide range of fundamental skills, but generally require the robot to sense where it is in space, detect objects around it, and then autonomously interact with those objects in its environment. Recent projects include pingpong, the Japanese cup-and-ball game, Kendama, and a landing pad that helps a quad-copter touch down safely. “(Read…)
“The Waggoner Ranch in north Texas is slightly smaller than Rhode Island and is the largest ranch in the U.S. within a single fence. Everything about it is Texas-scale: the colorful history, the sprawl, the oil that lies beneath it, and the feud among the heirs that is forcing a court-ordered sale. This old-fashioned working ranch comes with 6,800 cattle, 500 quarter horses, more than 1,000 producing oil wells, nearly 30,000 acres of farmland and more than 150 years of history. The price tag: $725 Million. ” [ link ](Read…)
Le forgeron japonais Toru Yamashita a imaginé des couteaux en carbone et acier sous la forme de cinq différentes races de baleines. Cette collection de couteaux s’appelle « Kujira » et les lames forment la bouche de la baleine. A la base, ces produits ont été conçus pour des enfants afin de rendre ludique le découpage du papier. Des exemplaires sont disponibles pour 50$ sur ce site ou sur Amazon.
Le Royal Greenwich Observatory qui organise le concours Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year, a révélé une première sélection. Il en ressort des clichés féériques. Les surprises que nous réserve l’univers nous étonnent sans cesse, offrant un spectacle irréel que ces photographes figent à merveille à travers leurs objectifs.
Le designer José Bernabé, dont nous avons déjà parlé pour son alphabet Chemical Cloud, poursuit cette série mais en s’intéressant cette fois-ci aux éléments et aux formes géométriques dites « impossibles ». Associées à des couleurs psychédéliques et des nuages, ces formes semblent créer une tension entre la nature et l’artifice.
Le Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy a réuni dans une playlist les courts métrages produits par la célèbre Ecole des Gobelins et présentés lors de l’évènement depuis 1999. Une sélection de 92 petits films émanant de ce fleuron français de l’animation, reconnu dans le monde entier. Une technique rare qui ne se dément pas les années passant. Des petits trésors à visionner sans modération.
Architect Raúl Sánchez has converted the vaulted basement of a Barcelona house into a subterranean apartment, with rooms separated by a curving pine partition (+ slideshow).
A stone and pine staircase leads down into the small space below the house, which is located in the La Barceloneta neighbourhood, a finger of land that stretches out from the Spanish city into the Mediterranean Sea.
Local architect Raúl Sánchez, who founded RAS Arquitectura in 2005, remodelled the 55-square-metre space – now known as Apartment Tibbaut – by using the curving pine partition to separate a central living space from more private rooms around the perimeter.
Layers of peeling paintwork were stripped from a pair of octagonal columns that support the canted ceiling, revealing the original stone surfaces, while the ceilings and walls were resealed with waterproof mortar to offer protection from damp.
“The interior of the simply built, very small structure had a real monumental look, presided over by two octagonal stone pillars from which domes and vaults rise to cover the space and bear the weight of the upper floors,” said Sánchez.
“The client had requested the creation of an open-floor space. However, this monumentality, coupled with the shortage of natural light and view to the outdoors, led to another proposal,” he added.
“The single-space concept could be maintained but with greater spatial complexity, by overlapping and intersecting two living spaces: a central, common, multipurpose space and a perimeter of small designated-use rooms.”
Curving panels of laminated pine create the partition that curls around the central living area and separates each of the rooms. These sections of wall stop short of the vaulted ceiling, revealing snippets of the original architecture above.
The glazed entrance lights the central living space and the gap above the timber walls allows natural light to filter though to the bedroom, shower room and a small study located around the edges.
“From the ground level, up to the level marked by where the domes begin, the view is partially interrupted by partitions, creating an anticipation of what lies beyond on the other side, and giving contour to the inner world,” said the architect.
Sliding doors recede into slots in the wooden partitions to segregate or unify the spaces, while the toilet is wedged under the upper portion of the staircase and is the only completely enclosed room.
The property’s seaside location and subterranean setting means there are few natural light sources and the high humidity levels demanded significant damp-proofing work to be undertaken to make the space habitable.
The floor was raised to accommodate under-floor heating and coated with a layer of white microcement, while the walls were resurfaced with waterproof mortar to prevent damp from seeping through. A dehumidifier funnels excess moisture from the air.
The limited palette of white plasterwork and pale wood was deployed to help reflect light and to leave the decor open to the client’s interpretation.
“The laminated pine dividing walls highlight the items in the centre of the space, while contrasting with the white surfaces of the existing walls,” said Sánchez.
“This is the serene canvas against which future users will splash the colours and textures of their furnishings and belongings.”
“When we removed the worksite floodlights in early summer we found that natural light filled the space and bounced on the walls nicely, creating a very pleasant and comfortable humidity-free space which seemed much bigger than its meagre 55 square metres,” he added.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
